Thursday, March 1, 2012

Randi Kaye will anchor CNN Newsroom Weekend mornings from 6 a.m. to noon and also do investigative reporting for Anderson Cooper 360 weeknights.

On a cooperate level CNN has announced Lynn Brindell, a veteran media marketing executive, will join CNN Worldwide as senior vice president of marketing. Brindell will work across all CNN brands and businesses to lead off-channel and digital marketing efforts, as well as develop strategies and programs to drive brand strength, and audience growth and engagement on all platforms.Brindell’s significant media marketing experience includes multi-platform brand work at The Weather Channel, Food Network and Lifetime Television. She has developed brand positioning, launched prime time series, directed off-channel and digital marketing strategies, overseen marketing initiatives for cable networks, and online ad sales and affiliate sales. She has also collaborated with national marketing partners at retail and in cause-related campaigns.

Brindell’s extensive media marketing experience includes launching a prime time series and an award-winning national environmental marketing platform for The Weather Channel; launching signature Iron Chef America and Next Food Network Star series for Food Network; and developing and managing all aspects of Television for Women branding for Lifetime Television.Brindell earned her bachelor’s of arts degree in English, magna cum laude, from Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine. She was the first woman in the college’s history to solely receive the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Award. She also studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York, New York. She has received numerous recognitions for creative excellence and achievement, including BDA, BPME/PROMAX, AWRT (now AWM), AWMS, AIGA, Telly, International Flame and New York Festivals.

32 comments:

Anonymous
said...

There you go again CNN. All CNN ever does is toreshuffle hosts and not concentrate on content,writing, story selection,communication, format,presentation,productions,guests, conversation that is intelligent, the pace of the show and flow.This is exactly why Starting Point is a disaster,CNN brings in Soledad and more talking headsbut leaves Christine Romans as the news anchor.To the average viewers nothing has actuallychanged. It is just more noise. What about thefundamentals ? Most CNN shows have you saying what ? With the exceptions of 360 &TSR most CNN shows lack identity and if theviewers can't identify with shows they don'twatch and turn the channel.

When Anderson is off, let Isha Sesay anchor 360, it is not like she is an inexperienced anchor like Erin Burnett and Piers Morgan.360 viewers have a comfort level with Isha.She is very much a part of the show andcan't be the sub anchor . We have seen heranchor breaking news for goodness sakeso why would CNN bring ins someone elseto anchor 360. What is she invisible ?

As far as I am concerned, CNN is wasting toomuch time trying to make Erin Burnett andPiers Morgan credible that they are losinga once great network. CNN is not in goodhands and it shows.

CNN should have gone with Don Lemon at9-11 AM. Carol Costello filled in for KyraPhillips when she was on maternity leave.She is not a strong anchor. Most of thetime she just does Obama rants but thatis what it takes to be on CNN these days.What a lack of imagination. Zero effect.MSNBC here I come.

Anderson and Wolf are the only anchors I watch on a regular basis.Carol Costello, Don Lemon and Christine Romans are all so boring. CNN needs to hire some new talent. Also I agree, Isha should fill in for Anderson.

CNN management is high on Erin Burnett. Thatis why you will never see Isha Sesay as the backupfor 360. They can't admit they messed up with OutFront. I tried to watch Erin Burnett last night and ended up going to the Weather Channel for thebreaking news on the tornadoes. Ali Velshi,Carol Costello & Christine Romans have alreadybeen rejected by CNN viewers. It won't work.

CNN needs to hire Aisha Tyler and GeorgeStrombo now so they can be on CNN by May. CNN is about to go down.

TVN has the ratings for Wednesday and itis bad news for CNN. Erin Burnett can't bethe lead in for 360. Her show had just361,000 viewers at 7 and only 89,000 inthe demo CNN can't wait on this. DropOut Front ASAP. Let Isha Sesay anchorfor 2 months with a temporary show.Get rid of Out Front and come up with adifferent show title.

WOW! The comments posted above are so "spot on" it is scary. If this is the trend of comments, maybe there is some hope that CNN management will notice........then again....doubtful.

Carol Costello...goodness. In addition to being an Obama shill, she has such a snarky attitude that it is a real turnoff. Just ask Chad Myers if you need affirmation. Her on-camera presence is that of an unhappy person.

Soledad......ditto. Snarky, supercilious, and far shallower than she would ever admit. This is the second strike for her. Do we have to endure another one down the road? I refuse to watch her program or anything with her involvement.

Erin was good at CNBC but she just doesn't have the anchor "thing" down yet. Tie her hands. Make her sit up straight. Speak more slowly.......Glide Erin.....more fluid questioning rather than hyper.

The Kyra reduction is mystifying. One of the best at CNN, yet she gets only an hour. Sad. Reminds me of how they dismissed Heidi Collins.

Piers......oh my. Enough said already. He is little more than a reincarnation of Robin Leach and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

Someone send CNN management a lifeline so we can get our network back on track.

I like Suzanne Malveaux but she is too boring to have her own two hour Newsroom block. It's just her reading a telepromter. She was SO MUCH BETTER as a Situation Room fill in for Wolf Blitzer when he was absent. It suited her more, especially being a White House correspondent.

@11:21PM:I totally agree. I'm also very disappointed in Soledad O'Brien. I watched her show the other morning and it's all talk! If I want to see that, I will watch The View. Honestly and Zoraida Sambolin is SO BORING! Not sure why there are two Early Start anchors? CNN should just cancel Early Start and Starting Point and have Soledad anchor in the same way they do for NewsRoom. Also get rid of John King, Erin Burnett, and move Piers Morgan to the weekends. His show seems like it is being renamed The Piers Morgan Interview.

Rachel Maddow is starting to pull away fromPiers Morgan. Eventually she will catch up toHannity or Greta. MSNBC is not even thinkingabout CNN. MSNBC is setting it;s sights on FOX.O'Reilly is trending down and that means FOXwon't get that big lead buildup.CNN is irrelevant.CNN has to pull the plug on John King, Erin Burnettand Piers Morgan. The problem is that CNN hasa terrible track record creating shows. Early Start,Starting Point and Out Front are the latest misses.A management shakeup has to be coming.

I read in comments above that Burnett is an inexperienced anchor. Quite the contrary, she is quite experienced from CNBC. its not that she is inexperienced, its that she is bad at it. That's an important distinction. I thought she was a bit overrated at CNBC but she had potential. She really jumped in the deep end at CNN and as a result really exposed some fundamental flaws. CNBC has a small audience with a limited demographic - she was popular there for reasons that don't always translate to success at a prestigious international news channel like CNN. Inexperience can be fixed - look at how MSNBC has done a good job of developing talent that didn't have much TV experience. Bad is something you can't fix. Plus, when is CNN going to realize their bigger problem is CONTENT and not just personalities. People overlook flaws in presenters when they are engaged with the content.

CNN management is not too bright. There is noway in the world they would hire Aisha Tyler orGeorge Stroumboulopoulos.CNN is falling behindbecause they are not evolving. Anyone who thinkspundits and ideological arguments will work in the21st century is clueless. CNN needs a leader whohas a vision for the future of a news network.Someone who will truly transform cable news.

Strombo and Aisha are smart, innovative andcreative. She could give CNN a 2 hour jump onRachel. She can do the news like Jon Stewartbut have a serious discussion when necessary.Perform the musical segments like JimmyFallon. Strombo has a live news show with astudio audience.. There are people who watchRachel Maddow just to see what she will doon her show. CNN needs someone who canchallenge Rachel and offer a competitive alternative.

All networks use clips of Stewart, Colbert,Kimmel and Fallon. What if those networksstarted running clips of Strombo & Aishaon CNN because their material is that good.

There is a rumor about CNN and AndrewBreitbart make the rounds. If CNN wasseriously considering putting him on thepayroll the network is rewarding someonewith questionable ethics. Hello, CNN doesthe Shirley Sherrod story ring a bell. Whywould CNN have been considering this ?That is all the proof you need that CNN isnot longer committed to journalism.TEANN.

Stop bashing Suzanne Malveaux. She doesa good job. None of the New Room showsshould be 2 hours. CNN needs to have only1 show called News Room. All of the anchorsjust read scripts for the News Room. It is notlike it is unique to Suzanne Malveaux.

Yes, CNN should hire the George Strombo guy.Just finished watching the Brooke Gladstone interview on her book The Influencing Machine.Watch the full segment on the media and howwe consume media. Also watched the RichardHarris interview on The Fear Index. Amazing connection between physicists and Wall Street.This is good TV. CNN really could use this show.

CNN has got to stop letting Ari Fleischer come onjust to deflect attention away from a particulartopic. The discussion about Rush Limbaugh on 360was absolutely ridiculous.. This has nothing to dowith the Huffington Post. So why was this allowedto happen on 360. Plus Mary Matlin defended itas satire. Are these people insane. ?That is whyCNN's political coverage is horrible. Secondly,why did 360 have 2 Republicans and 1 Democrat.Why stack the deck ? So CNN has no problem withthe Limbaugh comments ? CNN needs to get real.There is a huge backlash developing about Limbaugh. CNN is so disconnected and out oftouch. See how many advertisers abandon RushLimbaugh. That was irresponsible journalism.CNN should have had a serious conversation onthe matter not an absolutely ridiculous segment.That is also why CNN will always have a women'sproblem. That was offensive how 360 handledthe conversation. Respect viewers CNN.

Yeah, I saw that on 360 as well. Can't believe it. Exact same situatuon on OutFront - she had three guys to talk about Rush's slut comment and 2 were republicans. Honestly, Erin seemed entirely put out with the whole conversation. All she cared was that Rushbo handed an issue to the democrats on a silver platter. Oh, and of course she had to go on about how pwerful Rush is in Republican circles. By the way, it is also well known that Rush has a thing for Burnett because he always came to her defense when she caught heat for her public defense of the big banks and their big bonuses at the height of TARP. Apparently, Rush thought she was the only one defending capitalism and free enterprise. Erin didn't seem to interested in criticizing Rush's comments. Sandra Fluke was actually on Hardball yesterday and that was much more interesting than listening to Jon Avlon. As for Breitbart, I agree with comments above - CNN is out of their mind to even consider putting him on CNN as a host or anchor. Have they lost their mind??? No wonder CNN is sinking in the ratings. Very sad.

And they wonder why they are in last place in ratings. The anchors at CNN seriously can not compete with the ladies from Fox and MSNBC. Nothing is wrong with hiring a pretty face, but that pretty face needs to have some kind of journalistic talent or at least be an effective commentator or have the ability to provide competent analysis. That is where CNN fails on every level.

The comments here show why CNN is all over the map. Cause everyone here is too! You all are floating competing ideas. One person says each show should have it's own identity (I agree) while another says that Soledad should just anchor like newsroom (boring!). I think both Early Start and Starting Point are great and better then what they replaced. Soledad's show is designed to compete with Morning Joe (clearly) and in those parameters she does a good job (way too obsessed with what's on everyone's iPod though!). I do agree about the snarky tone of Carol Costello though. It is a turn off and I don't enjoy watching 2 minutes of her much less 2 hours. Not sure what they were thinking here. Krya is the best anchor on their daytime lineup. Not sure why she only has an hour now. Isha isn't used as a 360 anchor most likely because of her accent. A little is fine, but most Americans aren't going to connect with an hour of it. As for the notion that they can just pull in these people from other networks, well there are these things called contracts that have to be honored. Who's to say those people would even be interested in moving?

Excellent points - it is rather obvious why CNN is third. My only comment is that there is something kinda wrong with hiring a pretty face. If you're hiring for SI swimsuit model, by all means, she better be hot. But for CNN anchor, she darn well better be smart and competent - attractiveness is irrelevant. Sorry, but if that standard applies to men (which it obviously does) it should be equally applied to women. That pretty face may catch the attention of some men, but women can tell very quickly if she is dumb as a stump.

The thing is, women anchors dominate the day line-up (hence the pretty face point). It's apparent Fox goes for the pretty face, but their pretty faces can certainly anchor a show and have shown they have the moxy to handle an interview. The pretty faces CNN hires, the majority of them only possess minimal skills.

And why wouldn't the comments be all over the place? The people commenting on this board are from all over the country. We have different ideas and different thoughts. It's not our responsibility to think similiar. It would be smart of CNN to read all of these various comments and take some into consideration. Isn't that what these boards are for?

Harris Faulkner is a perfect example of why CNN is failing and Fox News is a success.I remember Harris Faulkner doing little bits from Atlanta, bulletins, and updates, wearing a lot of makeup, very pretty and very competent.Roger Ailes took notice and made her a regular anchor.This man is smart, and knows how to market his talent.CNN has no one at the helm like Roger Ailes to recognize who can do what, nor do they look for it.If they were in retail, they'd be in Chapter 11 by now.And for the last time, it isn't only the pundits that make CNN bad, it's EVERYTHING, from poor leadership to poor content to anchors who are over paid, and yes, that includes Anderson Cooper.

The general complaint is that CNN has no focus and just keeps throwing things at the wall to make things stick. But that is kind of a silly thing to complain about when the suggestions here consist of the same grasp at straws. That was my point when I said that people were all over the map here. How does anyone expect CNN to satisfy all these different points of view?

That being siad, I still would like to know what their thinking was with giving Carol two hours though. People didn't like her in the morning, even the wee hours of the morning wasn't good enough, so why would she fare well in this new timeslot? It makes no sense.

Why was Kyra Phillip's spot given to Carol Costello? Carol is trying but just does not have the right stuff for an anchor. She is too casual and does not have a good grasp of the subject matter. What happened here?